novelraw Chapter 36 : Chapter 36
Chapter 36 : Chapter 36
Chapter 36: The Peak of the Bear-Hide Stage
In the days that followed, Lin Bai’s life became extremely regular.
In the morning, he attended the talisman class. In the afternoon, he went to the Testing Palace to temper his Martial Skill. At night, he returned to refine his cultivation.
Everything was improving in a steady and orderly way.
With such unceasing bitter cultivation, ten days passed in the blink of an eye, and Lin Bai’s cultivation finally reached its first major threshold.
That night, the courtyard was silent, but light still spilled from the bath chamber inside the house. Lin Bai looked at the boiling water before him.
He directly took out the last three packets of Bear-Heart Medicinal Bath Powder and poured them into the tub. The powder dissolved, and the water turned murky black.
Lin Bai reached into the water and stirred it, feeling the boiling heat that would have flayed the flesh from an ordinary person, yet now brought him nothing more than a warm sensation.
The corners of his mouth rose involuntarily, and his mood grew brighter and brighter.
Does this count as reaching the stage where water and fire can no longer harm me?
Casting aside his stray thoughts, Lin Bai removed the last of his clothing and stepped into the boiling water.
This time, it was not the medicinal power spreading into Lin Bai. Rather, he was plundering the medicinal power from the water itself. The water around his skin turned clear, only to be mixed black again by the surrounding medicinal liquid.
If there had been anyone beside him, they would have clearly seen the color of the water in the bath passing through a constant cycle of “fading, replenishing, and fading again,” until in the end it returned completely to clarity.
At last, enough medicinal power had accumulated within Lin Bai’s body, and he stepped out of the water.
His flesh was flushed and swollen. Lin Bai felt an unbearable itch beneath his skin, so intense that he almost wanted to tear himself open with his own hands.
He slowly drew in a breath and suppressed the urge to scratch. This was the crucial moment when the medicinal power was sinking deep into his flesh and forcing it to transform.
He set his stance and slowly began to practice the 【Bear Pounce Form】.
At first, Lin Bai’s movements were not fast. They could even be called slow. But as the medicinal power within his body began to be absorbed by his flesh, his movements grew faster and faster, until even afterimages appeared around his hands and feet, like a maddened bear.
And yet Lin Bai’s mind was not focused on the movements themselves at all. He was immersed in the changing sensations within his body.
Compared to the unbearable itch from before, what spread through his flesh now was an ultimate comfort and satisfaction, as though every part of his being were rejoicing, as though he had risen into the clouds.
Only now did Lin Bai understand why there were so many fanatics of the martial path. No matter how painful the suffering beforehand, it was all worth it for this single moment.
This pleasure was not simple happiness. It was joy flowing through his entire body and spirit alike. This was the allure that transformation held for life itself.
For any living being, cultivating the Dao, seeking immortality, refining qi, and training in the martial path were all ways of raising the very grade of one’s existence.
How could anyone possibly resist that?
Even so, Lin Bai still retained a shred of clarity. The moment he sensed something was wrong, he knew disaster was near.
Without hesitation, he bit the tip of his tongue and used the pain to jolt himself awake. His mind cleared at once, and the movements of his hands gradually slowed.
That intoxicating pleasure began to recede. His lucid consciousness regained control, rather than letting instinct dominate.
“Good thing I didn’t fail.”
Lin Bai secretly rejoiced.
A person’s awareness was divided into waking consciousness and instinct.
What had happened just now was that his instinct had unconsciously begun pursuing transformation, which was why the situation had nearly gone out of control. Lin Bai’s talent was strong, and so too was his instinct. That was precisely why it had almost ruined things.
It was not that strong instinct was a bad thing. Those with powerful instinct could know autumn from the fall of a single leaf, sense the cicada before it stirred, anticipate the enemy in advance, and even seek fortune while avoiding disaster.
But in a situation like this, stronger instinct also meant a greater sensitivity to the ecstasy of advancement, making it all the harder to pull free.
Had Lin Bai not awakened in time, not only would this breakthrough have ended in failure, he might even have suffered a backlash from the medicinal power.
At that point, not only would his body have been damaged, but he likely would have spent the next three months doing nothing but recovering from injuries, with his cultivation at a complete standstill.
After passing through that danger, Lin Bai’s state of mind instead entered a strange kind of tranquility.
As he practiced the 【Bear Pounce Form】, his movements became increasingly smooth and natural, and his mind grew calmer and calmer.
At last, when he completed the final form, Lin Bai relaxed and stood upright. The savage aura around his body had completely withdrawn inward, and he now looked like nothing more than a graceful young man.
“There’s no mirror here. Otherwise I could have seen what I look like now.”
He lowered his head and carefully examined and felt the flesh of his own body. The more he looked, the more pleasing it became.
At first glance, his skin looked no different from that of an ordinary person, aside from being a little fairer and a little more delicate.
But if one touched it by hand, it felt warm and smooth like fine jade, almost like a piece of superior warm jade.
No, wait. How could someone like Lin Bai possibly care about outward appearances?
“Ahem...”
He suddenly realized something and quickly suppressed the smile at the corners of his mouth. He also withdrew that hand that had been “exploring” all over his own body.
“Business first. Time to test my defense.”
He beckoned to Mo Ling, who had been standing off to the side guarding him, and motioned for her to come over.
“Mm, Xiao Ling, use your full strength and attack my back with your claws. Yes, like that.”
After giving the instruction, Lin Bai bared his back and signaled for Mo Ling to strike.
“Caw? Caw, caw.”
“It’s fine. I just broke through, so I need to test my defense.”
Although Mo Ling did not quite understand, after Lin Bai confirmed it again and again and signaled firmly, she had no choice but to obey.
Mo Ling rose into the air, dived down, and swept her sharp claws across Lin Bai’s back with a rush of wind.
To no effect.
Mo Ling’s crow claws felt as though they had struck cured hide with a wooden stick. Lin Bai could clearly sense the feeling of the claws touching his skin.
But the skin did not split in the slightest. Not even a red mark appeared.
They tried again several more times, but the result remained the same.
“Caw, caw?”
Mo Ling landed on the rim of the tub, looked at her own claws, then at Lin Bai’s back, and seemed utterly bewildered.
“Heh, keep it down, keep it down. I’ll be even stronger in the future.”
Lin Bai could sense the admiration Mo Ling was sending his way.
In little Mo Ling’s understanding of the world, someone like Lin Bai would count as a Beast King out in the wild.
And as he listened to Mo Ling’s praise, the grin on Lin Bai’s face grew even wider.
After all, Mo Ling was just a little crow. How could she possibly lie? Her praise made Lin Bai very happy.
Still, happy as he was, the testing had to continue.
Lin Bai adjusted the Light-Heavy Saber to an appropriate level of force, picked it up, and drew it across the skin of his left arm.
He used only one-tenth of his strength at first. After all, when it came to blades and such, human beings instinctively feared them, so Lin Bai had unconsciously held back.
To his surprise, it did absolutely nothing. The hair-splitting edge of the blade passed across his skin without producing the slightest effect.
Left with no choice, Lin Bai increased the force and began dragging it back and forth like a saw.
The strength gradually rose.
Three-tenths. Five-tenths. Seven-tenths.
In the end, only when Lin Bai had used nearly ninety percent of his strength did the flesh on his left arm finally split open.
He lifted the wound before his eyes. It was neither large nor deep, and only a few thin strands of blood trickled from it.
The bleeding stopped very quickly. The spilled blood began to clot and scab over, and the wound itself started to itch. Then the scab fell away.
Lin Bai stared at the place that had just healed. It was as good as new, without leaving behind even the slightest scar.
“This is the true charm of a martial practitioner. High defense, powerful recovery, able to endure and able to fight.”
His Dao Path was the 【Beast-Taming Martial Artist】. The true core lay in the words “Martial Artist.” “Beast-Taming” was merely the embellishment on top.
There were even rumors that high-level Martial Artists could revive from a single drop of blood.
The source of that rumor lay in the Rebirth Realm within the hierarchy of cultivation.
Transcendent-Mortal, Extraordinary, Transcension, and Rebirth.
These realms had not appeared from nowhere. They had been carved out step by step by the ancestors of humankind. Among them, the Rebirth Realm had been opened up by predecessors of the Martial Artist Dao Path.
It was only that now the old term “Rebirth” had taken on a broader meaning, becoming a realm of renewed life for all Dao Paths. Yet at its source, it had once been the glorious symbol of the Martial Artist path.
Of course, all of that was still far too distant from Lin Bai.
The reason his body displayed such effects now was only because his talent was absurdly high. Otherwise, for a mere “infant” who had only just stepped onto the Dao Path, such defense and regenerative power would have been utterly impossible.
Naturally, the inherently extraordinary Dao Path of the 【Beast-Taming Martial Artist】 also deserved much of the credit.
The 【Beast-Taming Martial Artist】 was by no means some common Dao Path one could find everywhere. Otherwise, it would never have become part of the collection of a veteran master alchemist.
“Right now, I need nearly ninety percent of my strength to break through my own defense, and my recovery speed is also astonishingly fast.”
Lin Bai rubbed his chin as he analyzed the matter.
“With defense like this, I’m afraid no one of the same realm could break it.”
When Lin Bai spoke of cultivators in the Transcendent Realm, he meant those geniuses who had reached the peak of that realm, possessed powerful Dao Paths, and held supreme-grade Spiritual Talent. Other cultivators did not even fall within the scope of his comparison.
At that thought, heroic spirit surged within Lin Bai’s chest. Feeling the vigorous qi and blood coursing through him, one thought rose irresistibly in his mind.
He turned and strode toward the Meditation Chamber, a sharp light flashing in his eyes.
Strike while the iron is hot, and press forward in one breath.
Tonight, he would attempt to break through into the Tiger-Bone Stage.